JPMorgan Keeps Its Crown As Top Investment Bank

JP Morgan Chase & Co sign outside headquarters in New York Thomson Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. bank JPMorgan retained its crown as the top performing investment bank in the first nine months of the year, having made revenue of $17.1 billion in the year-to-date, new data showed on Friday.

In a ranking compiled by industry analytics firm Coalition, U.S. banks dominated the top spots, with Goldman Sachs coming second.

The only European bank to make the top three was Deutsche Bank , which shared third place with Citigroup and Bank of America Merrill Lynch .

Coalition, which only reports revenue figures for the top-ranked banks, said that total investment bank revenue earned so far this year was 6 percent lower than a year earlier, driven largely by a downturn in fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) divisions.

The top two investment banks in FICC - JPMorgan and Citi - have earned $8.9 billion this year from those divisions, compared to $10.1 billion in the same period last year, Coalition's data shows.

Most investment banks have seen trading revenues slump over the past year amid a low interest environment and tougher regulations requiring them to hold more capital, which have driven down returns.

Equities divisions have performed much better, with the top bank Morgan Stanley making revenue of $4.5 billion in the year-to-date, 15 percent more than the top bank did a year earlier. Last year's leaders JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs dropped to second.

Revenue at investment banking divisions, whose staff advise on deals, also rose. First-place JPMorgan's year-to-date revenue was $4.4 billion, almost 5 percent more than the Wall Street bank made by the same time last year.